Journalist, Author & Detroit-Home Renovator

Happy Anniversary, Matilda: The Year in Numbers

June 5, 2014

Karl and I bought Matilda one year ago. It’s been a wild ride, both more expensive and more fulfilling than we could have expected. (That’s Karl on home-buying day last year!)

We’ve met some amazing people and moved into a house that will be our forever home. We’ve also gone from starry-eyed dreamers excited about the low cost of living in Detroit to being broke, just like everyone else.

We hadn’t updated everyone on the finances lately, so I thought we’d give everyone a glimpse into some of the more interesting numbers:

When thinking about a rehab of historic homes, here’s an interesting number our contractors use to quick-guess what it will take to do a gut renovation: !100/square foot. That’s not fancy high-end finishes, but it’s not linoleum-level either.

We’re sitting right at about $120/square foot — but that includes taxes, insurance, purchase price, everything.